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Ancestry, USC List Japanese Americans Incarcerated During WWII
The Irei Project has created the most accurate list of people of Japanese descent incarcerated during World War II -- and it’s now being shared by Ancestry.com.
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Kristen Murakoshi
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Topline:
The country's largest genealogy company Ancestry has partnered with a USC professor-led project to publish the most up-to-date list of Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals who were incarcerated during WWII. The number now stands at more than 125,000.
The backstory: For decades, incomplete and error-ridden WWII records related to the incarceration of people of Japanese descent gave an undercount of those imprisoned at camps in the U.S. and were rife with misspellings of names.
The creation: USC religion professor Duncan Ryuken Williams launched the Irei Project to create a comprehensive and accurate list of incarcerees and in the process uncovered an additional 5,000-plus names. The project has shared the list with Ancestry, as well as people's incarceration histories as transfers between different camps was commonplace.
How you can access the list: The list of incarcerees is available for free on Ancestry.com, which is based on a subscription model but the company says it's lifted the paywall for certain record collections that "preserve the stories of our country's history, even the challenging ones."
Why look at the list on Ancestry.com: The list of incarcerees is already available on the website of the Irei Project, but Williams said Ancestry.com also offers access to nearly 350,000 historic records for free, such as camp rosters, draft cards and census forms, which give a sense of "what lives were like in the fullest sense before the war, during the war, as well as after the war."
What's next: Incarcerees and their families can visit the Irei Project online to add their names digitally. A book of names is on display at the Japanese American National Museum until Dec. 1. Visitors can stamp the names in the book as a way to honor those who were incarcerated. Planning is also underway as part of the Irei Project to create sculptural installations at some of the sites where there were incarceration camps.
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Go deeper: Project To Be Unveiled In LA Names Every Japanese American Incarcerated During WWII
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